Uncovering the Blessing of Fixed-Hour Prayer

Whether you call it the divine office, praying the hours, or common prayer, this ancient treasure of Christian heritage is hidden in plain sight. A feature story exploring the blessing of fixed-hour prayer.

The Mennonite pastor and professor has since met others who felt cut off from God during depression or other hard times. He recommends trying fixed-hour prayer because it’s based on the “’fixed language’ of Scriptures,” through which God has spoken for years and continues to speak.

Though many Christians are only now uncovering the ancient discipline of common prayer, Boers says it’s rooted in the Bible, ultimately enriches Sunday worship, and is easy to begin.

Back to our roots

Addressing God with the same words that others pray at the same time is a discipline with many names. No matter what you call it, this type of prayer dates back to God’s chosen people.

Boers compares spotting biblical prayer references to birdwatching. He grew up in southwestern Ontario, known for its rich avian life. But until he used a friend’s binoculars while living in Indiana, he never noticed all the birds around him.

In the same way, you might feel surprised once you start researching prayer in the Bible. Daniel was thrown in the lion’s den for praying three times a day. Many psalms specifically mention praying in the morning (5:3; 55:17; 59:16; 88:13; 92:2) or evening (17:1-3; 42:8; 63:5-6; 119:55; 141:2).

Psalm 65:8b suggests that God sees morning and evening as times when it’s especially easy to be aware of God. As the New Revised Standard Bible (Anglicized version) puts it: “You make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy.”

“The psalms confirm that we know God’s presence at all times only if we set asidecertain times of prayer,” Boers says.

The Gospels and Acts refer to praying at the third, sixth, and ninth hours—respectively referring to about three hours after sunrise, noon, and three hours after noon. Pentecost happened at the third hour. Peter had his rooftop vision of clean and unclean animals while praying at the sixth hour. He and John healed a lame man on the temple steps as they all gathered for ninth hour prayers.

Because Jesus prayed the psalms, as did the disciples (Acts 4:23-30), they had the words of Scripture when they needed them. Hanging in agony on the cross, Jesus cried out the opening line of Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He was crucified at the third hour and died at the ninth.

Boers admits that as a pessimist, he doesn’t naturally envision his life and family as reliably held by God. But praying the divine office, he says, “keeps drawing and reorienting us to God’s perspective.”

Common prayer fills a gap

Early Christians prayed the Lord’s Prayer three times a day. Medieval church bells called people to common prayer. But as priests, monks, and nuns added songs, readings, and responses to each office, fixed-hour prayer became something ordinary people couldn’t do.

“The importance of individual subjective prayer (what prayer does for me) has increased in everyone’s mind. But my experience as a pastor is that people don’t actually pray much on their own,” Boers says. Nor do many people’s spontaneous individual prayers relate to the church as a whole.

He explains that common daily prayer provides a link between private prayer and corporate worship.

Setting aside time each morning and evening to pray reminds us that all that we have, including our time, belongs to God. Presenting Sunday morning offerings embodies the same truth. Boers likes theologian Heather Murray Elkins’ pun, “altaring time,” because it captures the ideas of offering our time to God and being altered as that sacrifice sanctifies our experience of time.

Knowing that you’re praying the same psalms, canticles, and confessions as other Christians are—even if you’re separated by time, geography, or denominational idiosyncrasies—“can profoundly reverse unhealthy individualism in our prayer,” Boers says.

Praying the same Scriptures throughout the years may seem tedious. Eventually, though, the words sink in and we get better at receiving the challenge and insight of Bible readings and sermons in church.

Finally, because common prayer follows the same praise-listen-respond pattern as Sunday worship, it makes church services feel more in sync with the rest of life. It’s very different from experiencing your life as something distorted by other people’s priorities, punctuated here and there by a quick prayer or an hour in church.

An easy start is best

Praying the hours makes us available to God, who is everywhere and always attentive to us. Yet work schedules, family situations, and life stages interfere.

Boers advises starting regular prayer just once a day, either morning or evening. “It’s doable. You know what you’re doing. There’s a time limit,” he explains.

It’s great if you can gather with others at church, school, or work to observe a daily office. In fact, Boers has noticed that people who normally don’t dare pray out loud in groups feel free to recite from prayer books.

Praying a daily office often requires juggling a prayer book, Bible, and hymnal. Phyllis Tickle’s The Divine Hours series gathers the entire text (prayers, hymns, responses, readings) for each office in one space. Learn more about these highly accessible daily office books on Explore Faith. In November 2006, Oxford University Press will release the night time offices in Tickle’s The Divine Hours series. Phyllis Tickle says insomniacs and people who work through the night have been asking for these.

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